The Desolate Era

Chapter 7 – Painting Serpentwing Lake with Blood

Serpentwing’s giant bloody maw spat out a watery arrow of liquid. Swish! Swish! Swish! Gleaming with black light, the venomous liquid spread out towards Ji Ning, who didn’t dodge at all. The Darknorth sword in his left hand immediately executed the ‘Watertight’ technique, deflecting the venomous liquid to one side, and it landed on Serpentwing’s own body.

“Crackle…” Serpentwing’s scales were immediately set alight, but then afterwards the venomous liquid sank into Serpentwing’s body, absorbed by him.

Ning’s left hand had pushed aside the venomous liquid. His right hand was stabbing straight for Serpentwing’s head!

His sword flashed like a ray of light!

Hua!

This sword contained the power of the True Meaning of the Waterdrop, and was so fast that it caused even Serpentwing to be shocked. He hurriedly tried to twist his head away.

“Raindrop!” Ning’s eyes were filled with a cold, flashing light. “PIERCES ROCKS!!!”

The sword light flashed straight through the side of Serpentwing’s head, piercing straight through those scales and then burrowing straight through the side of his head. Beneath the injury, one could faintly even see the white skull bone, and an enormous amount of green blood sprayed out from the wound.

“He actually injured me?” The old monster, Serpentwing, went completely berserk. He wildly swung his head, his enormous scaled wings quickly sweeping towards Ning as well, and even his serpentine tail struck out, seeking to constrict Ning. For a moment it seemed as though he had been possessed, and the waters of the lake around them began to bubble and froth.

Ning, wielding his two swords, moved like a shadow. “Not only will I injure you, I will kill you!”

Although Serpentwing was stunned at the power of the swordplay Ning had displayed, he refused to believe that he, an old monster who had been training for a thousand years, would be defeated by this little human child. What’s more, Ning was the one who killed his most beloved child, Redtip…in this moment, Serpentwing had only one thought – kill Ji Ning!

Huahuahua…

The waters of the lake swirled about, and the enormous scaled wings as well as that unpredictable serpentine tail attacked wildly. The waters of the lake was the domain of the aquatic monsters, and here, Serpentwing was like a tiger who had been given wings.

Using the principles of ‘using generals against soldiers, using earth to block floods’, Ning continued to use appropriate, matching techniques to deal with the attacks. His sword techniques flashed out, leaving behind one wound after another on the serpentine tail and scaled wings of Serpentwing.

“How is this possible!”

“How can he possibly defeat me!”

“Die! Die! Die! I will make you die!” The old monster Serpentwing was now completely berserk.

Ning continued to battle against him, and occasionally, with but a glance, he would create a fire lotus petal or a water lotus petal. The fire lotus petal and water lotus petal would appear directly above and below Serpentwing, boxing him within. As the fire lotus petal and water lotus petal slowly swiveled in opposite directions, Serpentwing began to howl as his scales began to crack. “FORM!”

Above his head, a layer of frost rapidly appeared, while at the same time, his serpentine head shook violently, dispersing the Waterflame Lotus.

——————-

They battled wildly within the lake, causing utter chaos. None of the lesser aquatic monsters dared to draw near.

Serpentwing’s body was covered with multiple gaping wounds, and green blood oozed everywhere, staining the surrounding lake water green.

Above the lake.

Ji Yichuan, dressed in white fur, stood there with Yuchi Snow. The entire surface of the lake was shaking wildly, as though deep within the lake, an enormous aquatic monster was shaking.

“Such a large commotion.” Yichuan’s eyes lit up.

Snow nodded as well. “It seems Ning is giving that old monster Serpentwing a great deal of pressure. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be such a large commotion. Look, the water of the lake is turning green, and there are corpses of fishes and prawns.” The nearby undulating waters of the lake were beginning to have corpses of fish and prawns float on the surface. Clearly, they had been poisoned.

Yichuan took a sniff with his nose. “This is the blood of Serpentwing. His blood is highly venomous. Even after having been diluted by the lake water, most fish and prawns will be poisoned to death by it.”

“He has lost so much blood.” Snow’s amusement became even more pronounced. “Ning’s power has improved greatly.”

“Right. To let a peak Xiantian-level old monster like Serpentwing lose so much blood is indeed very impressive.” Yichuan was very eager as well.

—————————

Serpentwing had already used all the power available to him, but he still had yet to even injure Ning. Instead, his body was now covered with wounds, all inflicted by the sharp Darknorth swords in Ning’s hands.

“After I reached the peak Xiantian stage, in this area controlled by the Ji clan, there’s only a few people more powerful than me! All of them are extremely famous…how could this punk Ji Ning be so powerful? Most likely, not even that Ji Lee is a match for him.” Serpentwing, after going berserk for a time, had calmed down, and had begun to plan for a retreat.

The power Ning had displayed truly was astonishing.

As an old monster, Serpentwing’s body was naturally powerful…the sword attacks of most Xiantian-level Ki Refiners probably wouldn’t even break through his scales. But Ning’s swords were incomparably sharp! They sliced right through, leaving massive wounds, or pierced right through, gouging great holes.

“In a few more years, won’t this Ji Ning be even more powerful than his father?” The rage in Serpentwing’s heart was quickly dissipating, leaving behind only terror and alarm. “There’s no way I’ll be able to outfight a freak like him. I’d best flee!”

Swoosh!

With a shake of his serpentine tail and a turn of his serpentine head, the two scaled wings began to tremble…and Serpentwing began to attempt to flee at high speed.

“Old monster Serpentwing, don’t even think about fleeing!” Ning, currently standing on Serpentwing’s body, simultaneously controlled the corridor of water while utilizing the Windwing Evasion technique rapidly.

“If I want to leave, I’ll leave.” Serpentwing bellowed. With a shake of his tail, the waters of the lake immediately grew turbulent, and a surge of water immediately drenched Ning.

Immediately afterwards, Serpentwing felt extremely delighted.

A corridor formed by controlling water? Serpentwing was an aquatic monster who could also control water. To destroy it would naturally be extremely easy. If he wasn’t able to beat Ning, could it be that he also wouldn’t be able to flee?

“Huh?” Serpentwing suddenly, vaguely felt a terrifying threat appear. He couldn’t help but to turn his head and look.

In the lake waters behind him, Ning was currently standing upright and floating, surrounded by countless sword-type magic treasures. Every single one of them was covered with a faintly glowing light. A glowing sword of light formed from Xiantian ki that had been passed through and transformed by over three hundred flying sword magic treasures was currently hovering next to Ning, flickering.

“Magic treasures? So many magic treasures?” Serpentwing was stunned.

Swish!

The glowing sword of light flashed, instantly traversing hundreds of meters. Serpentwing could sense that this glowing sword of light contained boundless power. He wanted to turn his head to dodge it, but the glowing sword of light only curved slightly when arcing, and thus still pierced with great precision straight through the center of Serpentwing’s serpentine head.

Bang!

The sword of light pierced straight through Serpentwing’s skull, carrying with it green blood as well as some brain tissue.

“Aaaaah!” Serpentwing stared at Ning in astonishment. “This formation, formation…”

“You should feel honored that you died beneath this sword formation.” Ning slowly walked over, and the waters of the lake parted before him. Serpentwing’s eyes grew dim, and then his enormous body began to slowly drift downwards…

This old monster of Serpentwing Lake, who had been treated as a local tyrant for thousands of years, had died!

Watching the corpse of Serpentwing slowly drift down, Ning had very complicated feelings in his heart. It was this old monster who had gone to Western Prefecture City to attack him…resulting in this chain of events. When he had gone out adventuring and exploring, he had treated Serpentwing as his ultimate goal. Although Serpentwing had broken through to the peak Xiantian level in power, Ning had still executed him!

“Collect.” Ning grabbed Serpentwing’s enormous corpse. With but a thought, he stored it into an empty storage-type magic treasure. Although Serpentwing’s corpse was massive, when rolled up, it could still fit into one of the storage-type magic treasures. Although Ning didn’t have many other things, he had nearly a thousand storage-type magic treasures.

“Time to go back up.” With but a thought, the waters parted above him, and Ning began to walk upwards.

————————-

Yichuan and Snow were standing atop the lake, waiting.

“No more movement?” Snow looked at the slowly calming waters. “There’s nothing going on down there any longer.”

“Serpentwing was most likely unable to do anything to Ning.” Yichuan said. “Thus, he probably retreated. This battle has come to an end.”

Snow looked at her man. “Can’t it be that Ning executed that old monster?”

“Executed? In the water, that old monster can battle when he wants and flee when he wants. Beating him is easy, but executing him? Hard, hard, hard.” Yichuan had personally fought with Serpentwing a few times. He couldn’t help but shake his head. But then his eyes lit up, and he stared into the distance. “Look. Ji Ning is coming out.”

Snow turned to look as well.

From afar was the island in the center of Serpentwing Lake. A white wave was rising up next to the island, and the wave then parted, creating a corridor. A youth dressed in beast furs was walking through the waves, heading straight for the island.

“Ning!” Snow immediately called out.

———————–

Ning had been walking on the waves and heading for the island, but in his ears, he suddenly heard that familiar call. “Ning!”

“Mother?” Ning was stunned, and he hurriedly turned to look.

From afar, he saw Ji Yichuan, dressed in white furs, and Yuchi Snow. They were rapidly running towards him on water. This sight caused Ning to be both astonished and delighted.

Yichuan and Snow landed on the island.

“Ning.” As soon as she had arrived, Snow immediately grabbed her son by the hand, carefully inspecting him.

“Don’t worry. Even if Ji Ning was wounded, given the strength of his Fiendgod body, he will quickly recover.” Yichuan looked towards Ning, his eyes filled with satisfaction. “To be able to battle with a peak Xiantian-level Diremonster and cause him, Serpentwing, to flee helplessly…Ning, you have improved even more than I predicted.”

Ning was startled, and then he quickly said, “Father, I executed the Diremonster, Serpentwing.”